the accidental tourist

Last Sunday I remember thinking that I would be somewhere in the London area today going to church. Then it felt impossible and far off. Its about 10 in the morning on a Sunday and I'm waiting to go to my branch in south London at 2. The meetings will be in a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. I'm the only returned missionary who speaks Spanish, along with my buddy Jared who speaks Portuguese. Then we have one girl who is a Spanish major named Rachel and two others who took some Spanish classes in College. I'm way excited. Yesterday a son of one of the professors in the program was baptized. We rode the tube down to the borough of Chapham in south London for the service. I felt incredibly comfortable walking into the chapel and talking with the members. Wherever you go the language of the church is the same.
Chapham is quieter than the rest of London with more of a suburban feel which makes me excited to visit the countryside on our many excursions in the coming weeks.
The past few days gave us a chance to experience the weekend. We have an 11:00 pm curfew which doesn't give us enough time to hit random London hotspots. Instead, we went to a young Single Adult 80's dance at the Hyde Park chapel just across the park from us. There weren't too many people there but it made for some great people watching. I've noticed that the brits are bitingly sarcastic. At the end of the dance we asked one kid sitting outside how to get back home. He replied, "What, to America?" So everyone kind of has that sarcastic brat quality.
I'm posting a few pictures from my final walk yesterday through the area surrounding Buckingham Palace and St. James' park. We were there around 11 along with hundreds of camera-toting tourists watching the changing of the guard. There is alot of pomp and tradition associated with the monarchy, which is always fun to watch. The weather cleared up a bit yesterday and today, but there is a chance for some light rain tomorrow. We officially start our classes this week which means I'll visiting more of the national museums and libraries for a little research. Now that I've done most of the tourist stuff, I'm ready to move on to the more meaty, heart of London that I came here for.